Pesaro, 23 March 2026 – Guido Giraldi is Italian junior champion in the K1 kickboxing absolutes: the 17-year-old from Pesaro won gold with well-placed kicks, punches and knees. Having won the Italian title will allow the athlete to participate in the world championships in September and represent Italy in the junior lightweight category (-67Kg).
“Winning rewards you for the discipline necessary to give your best”
“He has what it takes and within four years he is already fighting as a semi-professional” comments proud Filippo Esposto, trainer and founder of the “Yari Ashigaru K1” gym in Pesaro. The fight – three rounds of two minutes – was short, but intense: without a knockout, but with a score that defeated the opponent. “I’m happy with the result – observes the champion, a brilliant fourth year student at the Bramante Genga Institute –: in the ring the concentration is maximum. Winning rewards you for the discipline necessary to give your best.”
Martial philosophy: yoga and meditation
Moreover, the name of the Yari Ashigaru gym is already a program: “They are two Japanese terms – explains Esposto – the first indicates a type of spear used by the Samuai (Yari) and the second which translated means “light foot” is the name of the peasant war troops. I chose this name for various reasons, including that it reveals an effective stylistic approach for both personal defense and psychophysical well-being. In training I pay more and more attention to Yoga and meditation. The method introduced by Yari Ashigaru can be practiced by everyone: men, women and children and represents a profoundly useful martial exercise in our contemporary times.”
Learn more:
“Maldives nightmare: four plane tickets, over 3,500 euros, only one chatbot for customer support. Still waiting for my trip reimbursement”
The success of the Pesaro team in Riccione
So true that in the Esposto gym, among the members, women have surpassed men. The results of an emancipation from old stereotypes according to which combat sports cannot be feminine can be seen in the podium of this latest championship, organized in Riccione by Federkombat. The “Yari Ashigaru K1”, the only one to represent the Marche in this discipline, against approximately 400 athletes participating in the various weight categories from all over Italy, it brought 6 athletes to the final stages, obtaining in the respective categories in addition to Giraldi’s gold, four bronze medals which went to Tommaso Federici; Bruce Pizarro Salvatierra; Elena Plaka and Camilla Bardeggia and a silver medal won by Vadym Dobrovolskyy.
“A sport that frees the mind”
In short, the team is strong: “We are very close: it’s the beauty of doing three hours of training a day – observes Guido, “the tough one”, as his father began to call him, already as a child, in front of that determination, intelligent, never boastful. “It’s a sport that, in addition to strengthening and technique, teaches you what it means to control yourself and the situation. Kickboxing teaches you to stay calm. It’s a sport that releases a lot of tension and frees the mind.”